Our debate in Maryland was our final University stop, and our next stop, San Francisco was different to the rest. We were heading to California for the National Communication Association conference – the annual gathering of professionals and academics in the field of communication (which incorporates not only debate but lots of other related fields). The event is enormous, with about 5000 delegates, and hundreds of event over four days. This was a fairly low intensity pressure in terms of debating, with just one debate during our stay. The debate was on whether or not the NCA should 'strongly discourage the use of the 'public speaking pill' without physician advice'. The drug in question is an over the counter natural drug for public speaking anxiety. We were debating against each other and each gave a speech, and after the debate part of the event a panel of experts on public speaking and speech anxiety commented on the issue, followed by the audience, before we gave summary speeches. Fitting with it being our final debate of the tour, the audience vote at the end was tied! It was great to get a chance to be part of an academic conference, and unusually for debating the issues we were discussing were actually potentially going to chance something – the discussion was about a possible resolution to NCA's legislative body.
NCA was also an excellent chance to catch up with many of the hosts, coaches and graduate students we met over the course of our trip, and our evenings were very enjoyable and spent hanging out with people we'd met (Lewis likened it to the Big Brother final night, where everyone who was evicted returns..). NCA is a hugely sociable event, and every evening different University's communication departments hosted parties (with the aim to reconnect alumni and faculty, provide networking opportunities and to promote their graduate programmes) we very much enjoyed various Universities parties, and aswell as catching up with familiar faces got introduced to lots of new and very interesting people. And of course, with only one debate to do, we had plenty of free time to explore what is a truly amazing city – beautiful, diverse, laid back and, importantly warm (even in mid-November!). We spent a lot of time wandering around the beautiful streets, checked out fisherman's wharf, took a boat trip around the bay to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz with Brian and Dave (who was our host in Miami) and took one of the famous trolley cars up the cities steep hills.
Our final stop on tour was a brief, one-day stop in Manhattan. One can't fail to be impressed by the city, and we managed to fit a lot into our limited time, starting in downtown Manhattan to visit the ground zero site and stopping by the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street (where we saw the announcement by GM about their share price changes). After walking through China town, Little Italy, Soho and passing by the Empire State building we found ourselves amongst the impressive lights and sights of Times Square. We then headed East to the United Nations HQ for a quick tour, where we got to see the General Assembly room (so cool!). After brief stops at the Rockefeller centre and Trump tower, we jumped back on the subway to our hotel to go to the airport.
So, after 2 months, 14 states, 22 Universities and about 30 flights, we finally embarked on our final flight back to London (and, for both of us, onwards to a debating tournament in Cambridge...). It has been an amazing journey, and we'd like to take these final lines of the blog for anyone who has the stamina to still be reading, to thank everyone who has hosted us so generously and made the experience such a incredible one. We'd also especially like to thank the English Speaking Union, the NCA Committee for International Discussion and Debate, and tour co-ordinator Brian Lain for everything they have done to make this programme happen. Long may it continue!
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